September 11th, 1988
A Newark man who was recently released from Trenton State Prison after serving 6.5 years of a rape conviction has been arrested in Orange on charges he made terroristic threats against a 14-year-old girl and had sexual contact with her.
Police Director Charles Cobbertt said the suspect, Dana Braunskill of Lanark Avenue, Newark, also is being investigated for making threats against at least "40 other females, aged 14 to 34" in Orange and neighboring communities.
Detective Clarence Derricott is creditied with helping arrest Braunskill last week, shortly after a teenager telephoned the police and told authorities a man had threatened to kill her and her 5-year-old bother if she did not have sex with him and pose nude, Cobbertt said.
The suspect initially telephoned the victim Aug. 30 and identified himself as a radio personality from a station in New York, according to police.
He first spoke to the victim's younger brother to learn his name, age and the name of an older sister, if he indeed had one, Cobbertt explained.
When the caller learned the name of the older sister, he asked to speak to her, lied about his identity and told the girl she had just won $1000 in a radio contest, he added.
The caller then told the victim to receive the money she had to first give the names, ages and telephone numbers of three girlfriends.
Cobbertt said the girl complied, the suspect got the information and then told the 14-year-old she had to pose nude for him.
When the victim refused, the suspect told her the name and age of her younger brother and vowed to kill him and her if she did not comply with his wishes, the police director said.
The girl, "all shook up" about the threat, later agreed to meet the suspect at Sanford and South Orange avenues in Newark and to bring similarly aged girlfriends with her, Cobbertt said.
When they arrived, the pair waited about 15 minutes until they were approached by an unidentified boy who handed them a handwritten message, Cobbertt said.
The message told the girl to tell her girlfriend to leave the area so the suspect could meet and talk with the victim alone, he said, adding the girl did just that and the suspect eventually met her alone and ordered her to walk with him to the second floor of a nearby house on Rockland Avenue.
According to the police director, it was there that the suspect demanded the girl disrobe so he could take nude pictures of her and have sex with her.
The suspect released the girl, Cobbertt continued, but a few days later telephoned her at home again, made similar threats on her life and that of her brother and again requested she meet him at Sanford and South Orange avenues.
This time the girl notified police and Derricott, along with Detectives Steve Crompton and James Cullen and Lt. Vincent Piscercia and members of the Newark Police Department, hid in the area and apprehended Braunskill.
The police recovered "a knife, a straight-edge razor, a yellow sheet of paper loaded with the names of about 40 females on it, aged 14 to 34" from Braunskill, Cobbertt said.
"And of those 40 names," he added, "nine were Orange residents." The others were from neighboring towns.
Cobbertt said authorities have since learned that all of the 40 girls and women on the paper had been contacted by Braunskill.
In addition to the Orange police, the sex crimes unit of Essex County Prosecutor's Office is investigating Braunskill. Cobbertt said Braunskill was released from prison five months ago.
An East Orange Businessman has been jailed on charges that he accepted money from customers to ship furniture and other items to Jamaica in the West Indies, and instead kept the money and furniture for himself.
Orange Police Director Charles Cobbertt identified the suspect as Joseph Walker, 36, the operator of Sealandair Shipping Inc. on South Harrison Street, East Orange.
Walker, who lives in Plainsboro, was arrested by East Orange police on a complaint that he failed to return a $4,000 truck he rented from a rental firm in Orange, Cobbertt said.
The suspect, charged with theft of services and theft by deception, was being held in jail while authorities "conduct an ongoing investigation" into how many people paid Walker money to ship things that never were delivered, he added.
Cobbertt said the police already have found $6,150 worth of furniture - originally bound for Jamaica - inside a Bayonne warehouse where Walker rented space.
“Reach Back with One Hand and Pull Someone Else Up With You.”
– Charles C. Cobbertt
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